A 17-year-old boy died Saturday after he was found buried in several feet of sand on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore in North Carolina, authorities said.
Seashore Law Enforcement Rangers responded around 2 p.m. to a 911 call about a teen trapped in a hole about a tenth of a mile east of an off-road vehicle ramp in Frisco, the National Park Service he said in a statement.
Family and friends had been searching for the teen when they found him in the sand, apparently caused by parts of an adjacent dune collapsing into the hole, the statement said.
The hole had been dug in an area of back dunes that was not visible from the beach, the park service said. Authorities have not revealed who dug the hole.
Rangers and other officials worked with the teen’s family members to remove the teen from the hole while performing CPR on him, but resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful, the statement said. The victim, whose name was not released, was from Chesapeake, Virginia, the park service said.
“Cape Hatteras National Seashore offers our condolences to his family and friends,” David Hallac, superintendent of Eastern North Carolina National Parks, said in the statement. «We urge visitors not to dig deep holes on the beach due to the danger they pose to beachgoers and emergency response personnel.»
The incident, which remains under investigation, occurred nearly a year after the deaths of Ian Spendlove, 13, of Santa Clara, Utah, and Levy Caverley, 18, of Maine, last May.
Spendlove died after the tunnel he had dug into the side of a sand dune at Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park collapsed with him inside, authorities said in a statement. statement.
Days later, Caverley died after a hole he and his sister were digging in the sand on a New Jersey beach collapsed on them. The sister was rescued and treated on the spot.
And in 2014, a 9-year-old girl died on an Oregon beach and a man died on a California beach in a sand hole collapses.